The energy and dynamic of live actors playing for a live audience makes for an experience unique from that of movies or television. Whether professional or community, what shines through at most performances is that the actors, director and all those behind the scenes are dedicated to giving the audience a memorable theatre experience.

Relish Elgin chatted recently with a local actor, Marina Silic and actor/director, Rob Faust. Both worked on “Heart’s Desire” with the Elgin Theatre Guild in March. They offered some insights into their experience with community theatre from behind the stage lights.

Rob FaustRob marks his twentieth anniversary of acting this coming September. Although he enjoyed acting in high school, it wasn’t till twenty years later that he noticed, while enrolling his oldest daughter in acting classes, that there were also adult classes and decided to sign up. In support of one of his acting classmates, he went along to an audition at the London Community Playhouse, tried out and got the part. Over the next twenty years he has contributed his acting and directing talents to numerous plays at several community theatres. Norm Foster is one of his favourite playwrights – Rob has acted in eight of his works. He’s currently on the board of the Elgin Theatre Guild, and directed their recent production of “Heart’s Desire” by Rick Whelan.

On directing….After having directed in two previous versions of Heart’s Desire, I felt well prepared to put my directional spin on the Elgin Theatre Guild’s production. Some directors don’t give a lot of direction, but I tend to give a fair amount. As an actor I was given some helpful insights by professionals, and was pushed to portray a guy, for example, who was hurting. I appreciated that. I think good actors crave direction.

Benefits of theatre for young people…For one thing, discipline – it may look easy but the challenge is not just learning lines but being able to interact with the other characters, and being totally in the moment. It’s also a chance to meet a lot of wonderful people and learn what you’re capable of doing.

Hopes for the Elgin Theatre Guild…We want to attract more audiences to come and see that amateur theatre can be of high calibre. We want to present quality shows with characters who come across as real people. The plays next season cover a lot of bases – there are comedies to start and end the season, another Pantomime, “Little Shop of Horrors” in March and “37 Postcards” in May. We also want to increase community involvement by offering acting courses for adults and children, and attracting more volunteers. They are needed for every aspect of the shows – ticket sales, concession, acting, direction, lights, sound, make-up, props. Our volunteers are appreciated and they end up having a lot of fun.

On Directing Heart’s Desire…I had played the lead, Billy Ray, in Rick Whelan’s original version of the play. It was my favourite part, and I got to know Rick and I love his work and this play. I think Ross Hepburn enjoyed playing Billy Ray in this version which was extensively re-written.

At fourteen, Marina Silic came to audition for “Heart’s Desire” as an ‘old pro’. She had enjoyed acting experiences in public school and when she was ten her mom suggested she try out for “The Homecoming” with the Elgin Theatre Guild. In 2010 she played the role of Millie Dillmount in the musical, “Thoroughly Modern Millie” at the Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Her performance ultimately earned her an invitation to a week-long reading of “My Son Pinocchio” at Musical Theatre International in New York City, where she was the first Canadian to ever participate in an MTI workshop.

Marina portrayed “Alison Smiley” in “Heart’s Desire” with energy and humour. She convincingly played the role of that teenager whose hyperactivity might at times be exhausting but is charmingly paired with positive intentions and a good heart. She played alongside a cast of characters whose actions spiralled toward varying levels of ‘dysfunction’. She says that playing the ‘good’ child was a role which came fairly naturally – she does well in school and enjoys singing and playing classical guitar. She thinks, though, that it would also be fun sometime to play the role of the ‘bad’ child.

Rob says that Marina stood out amongst the seven or eight young people who tried for the part. “She was eager to learn and good at taking direction.” She appreciated his approach. “It was encouraging. He wouldn’t say ‘you did this wrong’ but would usually laugh and say ‘maybe we should do this instead’. He was nice in his direction, and I would like to work with him again.”

On Learning Lines and Getting into Character… You become the character, and it gets easier to remember the lines. A date is set to go off-book and by then it is pretty easy. To get in character, you imagine that you are in the real world and figure out how your character would act. For the first couple of rehearsals we did character analysis. You think about what your character would do in different situations and share ideas. The woman who played my mother (Judy Cormier) was really good at doing that. Also, you feed off of each other’s energy – in some of the scenes with my brother (Jake, played by Alex Pickersgill) I was so frustrated with his terrible behaviour that my heart would start pounding.

On Acting in Heart’s Desire…I liked the character that I played – she was loud and hyper and her movements were ‘big’. It was a fun character to play. I learned a lot from working with the actor who played Sueleen. [Ashley Grech’s gave a memorable performance as the over-the-top sexy girl-friend of the main character.] She was very good at what she did. She also got me interested in, some day, trying out acting in murder mysteries.

Favourite actor…I like Johnny Depp, especially in a role like Edward Scissorhands, because so much of his acting is with his face and eyes.

Future roles…I would like to keep trying out for plays, then when I am older, murder mysteries, and someday Stratford. I’d like to go to school for acting after high school. In the long run I would like to act on Broadway.

The importance of live local theatre…To me, local theatre is a necessity. It’s a way for people to get into acting. In drama class you maybe don’t put yourself out there as much as in a theatre play. It gives you real experience with props and lighting and everything.

In the Elgin Theatre Guild’s upcoming production of “Old Love”, Rob Faust plays Bud Mitchell who reconnects with a woman he had known twenty or so years ago, at her husband’s funeral. A younger actor plays Bud in flashback scenes. Rob smiles, “It’s the role that I might have played twenty years ago when I started acting. It’s a play that should have appeal to a broad audience. I am looking forward to acting in it.”

We are fortunate in this area to have live theatre experiences readily available throughout the year. As the Elgin Theatre Guild and Aylmer Community Theatre mount their final productions of their fall to spring seasons, our ‘Theatre by the Lake’ in Port Stanley gears up to present its summer season.

The action goes from sublime to ridiculous as the Aylmer Community Theatre Presents “Honeymoon for Three” starting May 9th and running to May 18th (519-773-3372, www.aylmertheatre.ca). “Old Love” by Norm Foster is a story of romance, courtship and relationships, starting May 9th and running to May 19th at the Princess Ave playhouse (519-633-8530; www.elgintheatreguild.ca). Port Stanley Theatre kicks off their season on May 28th with the “Back in ’59”, a rollicking non-stop journey through the top musical hits of the 50s and 60s. It runs May 28th to June 8th, and is followed by four more productions you won’t want to miss. (519-782-4353, www.portstanleytheatre.ca)